Monthly Archives: December 2019

Unsafe abortion – responsible for some 18% of all maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa – is one of the most neglected sexual and reproductive health problems in the world today. A new collection in International Journal for Equity in Health aims to shed light on the articulation between the legal, political, social, and cultural conditions that work to enhance or hinder access to safe abortion services.

The vaping craze has swept the nation, advertised as a ‘better’ alternative to smoking. But is this really true? In a recent article published in Respiratory Research, Deirdre Gilpin and her colleagues explored whether exposure to electronic cigarette vapour (ECV), compared to cigarette smoke extract (CSE) resulted in changes in specific lung bacteria’s potential to cause harm.

Drug consumption rooms are an evidence based intervention which can help people who use drugs do so in a safer environment. However, they remain controversial in many countries. In this blog, authors, Pierre Smith and Pablo Nicaise from the Institute of Health and Society at UCLouvain, highlight the experience of the city of Liège, Belgium.

Tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease worldwide. The disease can also cause a heavy financial burden for families, particularly in low and middle income countries. In a recent article in Infectious Diseases of Povertyauthors Noemia Siqueira and Kritika Dixit investigated whether active case finding can reduce patient incurred costs for tuberculosis in Nepal.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has stated that universal health coverage (UHC) is “a political choice”. But what does it mean to say that UHC is political?